Re: Is GNU Prolog interpreter output missing quotes for '<>', '[]', and '{}'?

[Salvador Abreu]

Hi,

On Jan 27, 2012, at 05:45, Dave Sworin wrote:

> In gprolog 1.3.1 and gprolog 1.4.0 the following occurs.
>  
> A = '[]'.[ENTER KEY PRESSED]
> A = []
>  
> The same is true for '{}' and '<>'.  However, '()' works as I expected.
>  
> If a term includes the atom '[]', the term displays an empty list instead of 
> an atom.
>  
> A = f(abc,1.25,'[]').[ENTER KEY PRESSED]
> A = f(abc,1.25,[])
>  
> So the term now contains an empty list.

The empty list is, by definition, the atom '[]' (which is the *same thing* as 
just [], without the quotes).

>  This seems so very minor but when I copy GNU Prolog output
> from the interpreter display and paste it back into the interpreter
> for another query, the term is incorrect and the query fails.
>  
> I encountered this when writing code which outputs some Prolog source code
> as in a small code generator for a repetitive task.

If you want to write something that can be read back in (or pasted into the 
top-level) you want to use writeq/1 or write_canonical/1.  Typically you would 
use

        ...make term X...
        writeq(X), write(.), nl,
        ...keep going...

whatever is written may (normally) get read back in (or copy-pasted).

another possibility is to use format/2, as in:

        ...make X...
        format("~q.~n", [X]),
        ...

> Is this a bug???

No. :-)

regards,
--
Salvador Abreu       --  http://www.di.uevora.pt/~spa/
Departamento de Informatica
Universidade de Evora - PORTUGAL